Thursday, October 20, 2011

Breakfast pizza

When we were in Galveston and stayed at the Tremont House Hotel in July, we had this amazing little creation at the cafe inside the hotel. A breakfast pizza. It was soo good, I just couldn't get over it. Well I was thinking a week or so ago- I could TOTALLY make that. The only thing they did that was "difficult" was the cheese sauce they used instead of a marinara sauce. So I got to thinking how I could do that and DUH I could use a bechamel sauce with cheese- as if I was making macaroni and cheese.

So that's exactly what I did. I adapted The Barefoot Contessa's sauce from her Grown up Mac and Cheese using all cheddar cheese. And after that it was simple. Made the PW pizza crust (but you could easily use a pre-made crust), scrambled some eggs and fried up a few slices of bacon. Then all you have to do is assemble!

What you'll need
Pizza crust

3/4 Cup milk (anything you've got will do)

1 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoons all purpose flour

4 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

Pinch nutmeg

4-6 eggs, scrambled (depending on how thick you want your egg layer- I used four for a thin layer)

6 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled

Heat the milk in a small saucepan (or just in the microwave) but don't boil it. In the meantime, melt the butter in a small pot and add the flour. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk. It will bubble up and combine to a paste. While whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or 2 more whisking the whole time until thickened and smooth. Off the heat, add the Cheddar, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Let cool.

Preheat the oven to 425. Once the sauce has cooled down, roll out your dough and place on a baking sheet. If using a homemade crust I rub a little olive oil over the crust and sprinkle with salt. Pre-bake the pizza crust for about 10 minutes, until starting to bubble and brown on the top. Take the crust out and spread the bechamel sauce over the crust as you would pizza sauce. Then just layer on your goods! Eggs, then bacon crumbles and a little more shredded cheese. We also used some pickled jalapenos. You can add any other topping you like- kind of like an omelet! Then put it back in the oven and back for 8-10 more minutes, until the cheese has melted!

Slice it up and voila!

Super easy and really pretty fast- you could even have all the components cooked in advance and then throw them on there really fast and bake! And trust me- I have NO fancy pizza equipment and it's still so easy to throw a homemade crust together (even if its not round- it's still delicious!)